1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a micro-pump, and more particularly, to a micro-pump capable of uniformly supplying a small amount of fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Observation of a reaction between new drugs and a cell is required for developing new drugs and testing the stability thereof. In general, a reaction test between a drug and a cell is performed by using a culture dish, or the like.
However, since a reaction between a drug and a cell, occurring in the culture dish, is significantly different from a reaction between the drug and the cell, occurring inside a body, it may be difficult to accurately observe or examine a reaction between a drug and a cell only through a result of the test using the culture dish. Therefore, development of a new device that can observe the reaction between the drug and the cell in a similar environment to that of a body is required.
To this end, the applicant has developed a technology of circulating a culture medium. However, since a small amount of culture medium needs to be constantly supplied, for smoothly culturing the cell, the development of a micro-pump for uniformly supplying a small amount of fluid is needed.
Meanwhile, there are Patent Documents 1 and 2 as prior art inventions relating to micro-pumps. According to Patent Documents 1 and 2, a small amount of fluid may be moved by using driving force of a piezoelectric element. However, Patent Document 1 does not include a valve that completely blocks a fluid flow, which makes it difficult to transfer a quantitative amount of fluid. Unlike this, Patent Document 2 includes valves 5 and 6 provided in valve substrates 3 and 4, respectively, which makes it possible to transfer the quantitative amount of fluid; however, it is disadvantageously difficult to manufacture the valve substrates 3 and 4.